The Durham Festival at the Northern Echo arena was a great success with all the teams playing thrilling rugby in front of North of England selectors.

For Durham, it took the first quarter to find their stride as they opened the game as an unsettled side.

Throughout the match, the unbeaten side ran in an impressive eight tries, with Max Pepper, Alfie Lawson, Elliot Trott and Jack Hudson all crossing the line and points from the boot of Callum Piert and Hudson.

Phil Lax, Durham County U18s Manager said: “There was lots of really impressive performaces indivdually by the Durham boys, but our collective team spirit was superb and set the platform for us to show our potential.

“A huge thank you to the team at Darlington Mowden Park RFC headed up by David Hill for hosting such a professional and well organised event.

“And a big thank you to John Denham the President of Durham County RFU for coming along to support the event.”

Following on to the field after Durham, Cheshire missed out by one point to Yorkshire with an end score of 41 – 40 while Lancashire took home a comfortable 41 – 10 victory against Cumbria.

The next game for the Durham U18M is Sunday, December, 3 at 2.15pm KO against Cumbria at Bishop Burton College for another North Selectors day.